Translated Slownik Geograficzny Entries - JASLO

JASLO: a town and powiat*
seat, watered from the north by the Jasiolka and
from the west by the Debowka, into which the Ropa flows, so that from that point on these
three rivers are called the Wisloka. Jaslo lies in a beautiful valley, 233 meters above
sea level, at 39º8' longitude east from Ferro [Translator's note: by today's standard
measurement that is 21º28' longitude] and 49º45' latitude north, 57 km. from Tarnow.
Highways lead from Jaslo to Dukla, Gorka, and Pilzno. Of the 2,962 inhabitants, 2,448 are
Roman Catholic, 22 Greek Catholic, 8 non-Catholic [presumably Protestant], and 468
Jewish.

This small but well-built town has single-story
brick houses in the marketplace, and wooden courts in the streets, for the most part with
beautiful gardens. The surface area of the town covers 815 morga's*, 1,090 sq. sazen's*.
The town's assets come to 176,000 zl. (Austrian currency), liabilities come to
7,976 zl., and the annual income is 18,000 zl. Jaslo is the seat of an
Imperial and Royal* starostwo* and affiliated offices, a county council, a district
school board, an Imperial and Royal countycourt, and postal and telegraph offices.
In Jaslo there are male and female 4-class community schools and an Imperial and Royal
academy, founded as a municipal institution in 1868 and transferred in 1875 to
governmental administration, which has 350 students.

Financial institutions here include a branch of
the Galician Credit Society, a savings bank established in 1868 by the gmina* with
guaranteed funds of 12,000 zl. (Austrian currency), and a loan fund for craftsmen
and industrialists, founded by the gmina council in 1866 for the purpose of
assisting craftsmen with 4% loans of up to 1,000 zl. Humanitarian institutions
include a dormitory for poor grammar-schoolyouths, an invalid's fund created in
1851 with initial capital of 1,300 zl., a fund for the needy created in 1844, and a
general hospital, founded with voluntary contributions between 1838 and 1842. The
hospitals goal is to treat and care for the sick at a charge of 60 cents a day; its
property consists of a one-story brick house, valued at 18,000 zl., and a garden.
Revenues in 1879 came to 13,656 zl. (Austrian currency).

The town has the appearance of a completely new one, despite the ancient
parish church, and a small number of inhabitants, and all its institutions date from
recent timeseven though we have knowledge of this locality as early as
1328because of the numerous disasters that have befallen it. In that year we find a
church in "Jassel" in Zrecin deanery, Krakow diocese, on a list of rectories
drawn up for collecting Peter's Pence*. Kazimierz the Great incorporated
"Jaszyel" with a Magdeburg* charter 38 years later, making it a town, bestowing
on it scales and 2 lans* free of fees for pasture-land, commonly called the skotnica
[hard to translate, something like "cattle place"] (1366). The Hungarians
supposedly destroyed the original church, and according to Dlugosz (in Liber
beneficiorum Dioecesis cracoviensis) the current brick one was erected in 1446 by the
brothers Stanislaw Cielatko (Czelanthco), doctor of decretals, Sandomierz scholastic,
and Mikolaj of Ciolek arms, who is mentioned in 1442 among the canons of Przemysl. On the
vault are the coats of arms Janina, Gryf, Pobog, Traby, and Strzemie, from which one might
conclude that these and other noble families contributed to its construction.

It was about then that Jaslos misfortunes
began. During the dispute over Bohemia between Wladyslaw Jagiellonczyk and Matthias I
Corvinus [aka Mátyás Hunyadi, King of Hungary 1458-1490], in which Kazimierz
Jagiellonczyk took his son's side, the King of Hungary attacked the foothills of the
Carpathians and burned Jaslo in 1474. To what extent and how swiftly the town recovered
from this attack we cannot ascertain, for the town is not mentioned again until 1550, when
it was changed to a starostwo (not affiliated with a grod*) and given to
Joachim Lubomirski, a courtier of Zygmunt August, at which point the king confirmed all
charters and liberties conferred on the city by his predecessors. An inspection in 1564
does not list how many lan's the inhabitants possessed, but says, "In all,
they pay 4 grzywna's*, 28 grosz'es*, 6 denar's*; on
houses both inhabited and empty they each pay one grosz threshold tax, 20 gr.
per lodging, and on the baths 8 grzywnas. Butchers give 5 grz. for
tallow, 2 gr. each for tripe from butcher-stalls, whereas they all contribute
toward a good calf. Bakers have 14 stalls, on each of which they pay 10 gr., and
cobblers 12 gr. each on the same number of stalls." Judging by the number of
bakers and cobblers, one must conclude that the town was significantly larger then than
today.

Less flattering is the image of the inhabitants'
state of sobriety at the time, for "on account of the great drunkenness and resultant
killings and other excesses" the holder of the office of starosta* saw himself
forced to prohibit the distilling and selling of liquor. The city paid a market fee of 3
marks, and from the census and milling 210 marks, 40 gr., 6 den. It seems
that that the making of saltpeter was very widespread, for Zygmunt III forbade making it
here, under punishment of a 100-grzywna fine, due to the destruction of forests; at
the same time Jews were forbidden to settle in Jaslo and open businesses there. In 1613
Zygmunt III conferred the office of Jaslo starosta on Mikolaj Strus, "who has
never failed to take part in any military expedition" [part of the starosta's
duty was to participate in any military action the King undertook], and in 1619 he
renewed it and strengthened the prohibition against Jews, "because they hinder the
townsmen in trade and buy up all the victuals."

Despite such royal protection, the town fell
in Jan Kazimierzs time, during the war with Sweden; it was occupied and burned,
probably in 1655, by the Swedes. Royal inspectors in 1664 found there "only one house
of hospitality [presumably an inn], 5 taverns, and 10 common houses, all other
places lay empty" There were only two cobblers, one baker, 5 distilleries
They paid 10 florins coronation tax. A butcher showed a charter from 1574 allowing only
eight to stay in town and establishing that they were all to pay a total of 15 grzywna
from their stalls for tallow. Naturally at this time the town was not able to provide for
the levy en masse a war carriage with good horses and a cannon, as it was obligated to do.
It is doubtful whether the town recovered from this decline, for again in 1683 it
experienced a terrible fire, which happened again in 1755 and 1826. The next-to-last starosta
of Jaslo, Adam Tarlo (took office in 1733), was an ardent supporter of Stanislaw
Leszczynski; the last starosta was Jedrzej Moszczenski, Inowloclaw [sic]
voivode, who in 1772 paid a kwarta* of 6,018 zl., 25 gr., 12 den.
Belonging to the starosta's jurisdiction were the villages of Krajowice, Kaczorowy,
Bryszczki, Hankowka, and Siemiechow.

Jaslo was an open town, and the starosta resided
in a castle in Krajowice, 5.6 km. from Jaslo, and the castle there was not attacked. It is
surely to these ruins that Balinski refers in Starozytna polska, for there is no
tradition of castle ruins in Jaslo. Besides the parish church, there was in Jaslo a church
and monastery of the Carmelites; when they were founded is unknown, but it was probably
before 1437. There was a well in the chapel, which St. Wojciech is supposed to have
blessed while on his way from Hungary, and a miraculous image of the Blessed Mother,
called "Hungarian," which is currently to be found in the village of Tarnowiec,
"to which so great a number of pilgrims came from Poland and especially from Hungary,
that the town had no room for them all." Emperor Josef II abolished the monastery in
1786 and changed it into an office for the starosta. The records mention also a
benefice of the Visitation of the Blessed Mother, which Zygmunt I established in 1550, and
a hospital of the Holy Spirit with a chapel. Today there is no trace of that famous well,
but the people point to a spring along the road to Tarnow, maintaining that it flows from
Dukla "from St. Jan" [surely a reference to Blessed Jan of Dukla] and is
helpful with eye ailments. Surely this is the form the tradition of an ancient well has
changed into. At the cemetery there is a brick chapel dating from 1862 called "The
Parish of Christ's Crucifixion," it belongs to Przemysl diocese and includes 21
localities with a total of 7,157 Roman Catholic inhabitants, 7 non-Catholics, and 468
Jews.

Jaslo powiat has an area
of 9.57820 myriameters, and 83,709 inhabitants in 154 settlements and 150 catastral gmina's.
Within its borders are three countycourts: in Jaslo, Frysztak, and Zmigrod. Jaslo
county borders on Krosno county to the southeast, Gorlice county to the southwest, and
Pilzno county to the north, so it covers the upper river-basin of the Wisloka and the
foothills of the Beskids. In terms of population and soil fertility of Galician counties,
this one must be considered among the second rank. The northern part of the countyis
more fertile, namely the delightful valleys adorned with beautiful and numerous manors of
the nobility, whereas the northern part [sic  presumably the author meant to say
the southern part] is less fertile and therefore less heavily forested. In this
part of the county, in Lezyny near Zmigród, there are numerous oil wells.

Jaslo obwód* in Galicia was abolished,
along with those of Wadowice and Bochnia, under the ministry of Count Agenor Goluchowski,
Senior, by a decree dated 6 August 1860. This district included the counties of: Dukla
(347 sq. km.*, population 20,000, 39 gmina's); Zmigrod (over 289 sq. km., 22,000
population, 44 gmina's); Frysztak (over 230 sq. km., population 24,200, 4 gmina's);
Brzostek (over 230 sq. km., population 24,200, 30 gmina's); Strzyzów (over 289 sq.
km., population 28,000, 35 gmina's); Jaslo (over 230 sq. km., population 28,000, 25
gmina's); Krosno (over 230 sq. km., population 29,000, 25 gmina's); Biecz
(over 289 sq. km., population 29,400, 33 gmina's); Gorlice (405 sq. km., population
35,100, 48 gmina's). Of the towns in those counties, Gorlice was the most populous.
By the decree mentioned above, Gorlice and Biecz counties were attached to [Nowy] Sacz
district; Brzostek, Frysztak, and Jaslo to Tarnow district; Strzyzow to Rzeszow district;
and Krosno, Zmigrod and Dukla to Sanok district. Jaslo district bordered on the district
of Rzeszow to the northeast, Sanok to the east, Sacz to the west, and Hungary to the
south. The Carpathian range cut through the district, and the ground is for the most part
rocky and not well suited to cultivation. Besides agriculture, manufacturing cloth is the
main occupation of the people. In addition to the county seats, discussed in their own
places by alphabetical order, these are the more important communities:

Kolaczyce, at one time there was a fortified castle here, but in 1546 the town burned and only the church survived;

Blazowa, it has a beautiful palace;

Czudec, with a beautiful garden and palace;

Frysztak, formerly Freistadt, founded by Germans in the days of Kazimierz the Great;

Osiek, a town, at one time a royal castle;

Strzyzow, has a delightful Gothic-style church; its inhabitants are potters.

The smaller towns are Debowiec, Jedlincze, and
Jodlowo, which has declined a great deal.

The more important villages are: Binarowa,
Czarnorzeki, Dobrzechow, Gleboka, Glogolow, Jaworze, Kobylanka, Korczyna, Kroscienko,
Kunowa, Libusza, Moderowka, Nawsie, Nieglowice, Odrzykon, Polany, Raclawice, Ropa,
Rosenbark, Rychwald, Samokleski, Sobniow, Suchodol, Szymbark, Tarnowiec, Trzciana,
Trzenica, Turaszowka, Wysowa, Zarnowiec and a colony of Germans in Wiesendorf. Czarnorzeki
stands out because of its delightful surroundings, Gleboka has mineral waters, and many
people make pilgrimages to Kobylanka. In Koscieniec Swedish prisoners of war settled down
as colonists. Kunow is the clan nest of the Oswiecimskis. Libusza is a village known
from the end of the 14th century. Nawsie has a mineral spring, in 1840 a factory making
nankeen and katun [?]. In Nieglowice one can see the ruins of an ancient castle.
Odrzykon has a mineral spring, ruins of a castle on a cliff from the 12th century, called
Ehrenberg. Polany has a glassworks. In Samokleski is a nice palace. The last of the Firlej
clan died in Sobniow. Suchodol originated as a settlement of Swedish prisoners of war.
Szymbark is known from the 12th century under the name of Schonpark, Rakoczy
destroyed its ancient castle. Tarnowiec is a well known site for pilgrimages. In Trzciana
there is a chapel at the spot where Blessed Jan of Dukla stayed. In Turaszowka there is a
hot mineral spring, and there is also a mineral spring in Wysowa. In Zarnowiec lived
Adelajda, the daughter of a Hessian landgrave, deserted by her husband, Kazimierz the
Great. Read Hibel, "Bruchstucke einer Topographie des Jasloer Kreises, geschrieben im
Jahre 1808" ["Sketches of a topography of Jaslo county, written in 1808"]
in Vaterländische Blätter für Österreich, 1811, no. 76. The same item in Polish
is in Dod. do Gaz. lwow., 1811, no. 43.  There is a short description of the
town and a drawing in Steczynskis Okolice Galicyi, no. 1.  "Z
podrozy archeologicznej w Jasielskim," Czas, 1852, no.
235."Spostrzezenia meteorologiczne w J." in Jahrbücher der
Central-Anstalt f. Meteorologie, v. Kreil, Wien, 1860, VII, 140.On iron ore in
Jaslo county see Jahrbuch der geol. Reichsan., Wien, VII, 836; on oil there see ibid.,
XV, 184."Przyczynek do flory obwodów jasielskiego i sanockiego p. Knappa"
in Spraw. kom. fizyogr., Krakow, 1869."Jaslo i jego okolice" in Tygodnik
Ilustrowany, Warszawa, 1879.Acta oppidi Jaslien. ab anno 1584 ad 1643,
manuscript in the Bibl. Ossolin., no. 432.  Mac.

Sources:1)Slownik Geograficzny translated by William F. "Fred" Hoffman (This information
was published between 1880 and 1902 and gives a view of this locality during that time frame).
2) Photographs by James A. Derheim, European Focus Photography.
3) Definitions from the CD-ROM, Encyklopedia multimedialna PWN, 1998 edition, Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN, Warszawa, 1997.]